Till Demon Do Us Part – Book 6 in the Paranormal Wedding Planner Series!
Love is Magic.
What’s a faerie to do when the demon equivalent of a grizzly bear needs her healing powers? Rush to his side. Even though the man wants nothing to do with her, the more time Darcinda spends with the demon, the more his noble and caring sides are revealed.
McHenry wants to be left alone with his forge and his metals. His grumbling hermit persona scares most people away. The last person he wants on his land is the faerie healer who isn’t intimidated by him. At all. The longer she stays, the more he realizes she’s a light in his dark, lonely world.
But he can’t let anyone near his heart.
Especially when a secret he’s been hiding threatens to destroy them all.
When the truth comes out, can those he pushed away be his salvation? Including the exasperating healer with the sea-green eyes and selfless heart?
EXCERPT:
Flame wields the power of creation…
Chapter 1
McHenry took a deep breath as he stood back and used his sleeve to wipe sweat off his brow.
The forge in front of him billowed flames like the bowels of hell—the perfect blistering temperature for the type of metal he’d just immersed in it. A few seconds more and he’d remove the bar and begin to mold it into something.
He wasn’t sure what the something was yet, but the metal would tell him what it wanted to be. It always did.
He reached into the forge with metal tongs and held the bar aloft, the end bright orange with just the right hint of yellow. The flames licked his hands and would have burned them if they weren’t bespelled to take the heat. Placing the molten end of the rod on the anvil to his left, he picked up a mallet and pounded it a couple of times to test its give. A couple of quick taps and the metal flattened easily.
After a few more taps, the metal began to take shape into a flat strip. There it is. Something decorative. Maybe he could send it as a belated wedding gift to Jack and Julia.
He paused in the middle of working the metal. When was the last time he’d been inspired to make a gift for someone? And since the first time he’d met Julia, she accused him of working with supernatural supremacists, his urge to make something for her was even more surprising. He’d blustered and pushed her away, but unlike everyone else who scurried from him, she wasn’t afraid.
And with Julia came her werewolf mate, Jack, and all his other teammates and their mates. And as much as he tried to scare them all away, they weren’t put off by his blustering ways either. But he couldn’t let them get too close. Couldn’t let anyone get too close.
Jack and Julia had been married for months now. They invited him to their wedding, but he wasn’t able to attend. Of course he couldn’t tell them the real reason he couldn’t go, not if he wanted his reputation as a cranky hermit to remain intact.
Not that he cared a fig about propriety or what people thought of him.
He liked being alone. In the past there was only him and his two nephews to worry about. And now both Andrew and Jamie were grown, he didn’t need to worry about them—much. Although he hadn’t been seeing much of Andrew lately, which meant it was time to do some investigating.
A shadow fell over the door and McHenry turned. As if his earlier thoughts had summoned his nephew, there was Andrew, standing just outside. Normally Andrew burst into a room, but this time he hesitated, as if afraid to enter, which set McHenry’s alarms to clanging.
He nodded to his nephew. “Where’ve you been hidin’ lately?”
Andrew blanched, which ratcheted up McHenry’s already jangling nerves even further.
“Spit it out, son. It can’t be that bad, now.”
“I’ve met someone.”
McHenry couldn’t keep from smiling. “Have you? Is it serious?”
“Very.”
“Why have you been keepin’ it a secret?”
Andrew looked away.
The evasion set all sorts of bad scenarios to running in his head. Andrew knew better than to be cavorting with a married lass. “What is it?”
“She’s been visiting the Burrow, so we were taking things slowly.”
“That sounds like a smart idea, son. You’re still young.”
“I’m twenty-five.”
He said it with such determination, McHenry didn’t dare smile at him. In McHenry’s eyes, he would always be the defiant young boy who came to live with him a dozen years ago.
“So tell me about the lass.”
“She’s amazing. She’s beautiful and so smart. And she makes me laugh. Tells me I’m too serious and I need to enjoy life.”
McHenry liked what he was hearing so far. “You said she’s visitin’. Who in the village is she staying with?”
Andrew took a breath before responding. “She’s been staying for the past few months with Corinne, her aunt.”
McHenry’s stomach twisted. No no no. Please be a niece from her husband’s side. “What is her name?”
“Selina.”
Hells. “Do you know who her father is?”
Andrew gulped. “I do. I mean I didn’t, not until today.”
“Damnation, Andrew! I told you not to get anywhere near the demon king.”
“I didn’t.”
“No, you went near his daughter!” McHenry bellowed. “Break it off!”
Andrew scowled. “No. I love her. We want to be together. And we did a handfasting, like you told us they do in Scotland.”
McHenry groaned. He should never have told the boys about that damn tradition.
“Do you honestly think her father will be okay with this? He probably has some hoity-toity demon lined up for her.”
“I wanted to ask her father’s permission to marry her, but Selina wants to talk to him first.”
At least one of them was thinking clearly. The girl had probably saved his nephew from being incinerated.
“How do you think this is goin’ to end up, Andrew? He won’t let you marry her.”
Andrew fisted his hands at his sides. “I love her and she loves me! I don’t care who her father is.”
McHenry slammed the mallet down, and the anvil shook slightly. He cursed himself for his recklessness.
The anvil continued to vibrate even though he hadn’t swung the mallet again.
He froze as the air buzzed with static electricity, as if heralding a storm.
Various metals in his shop vibrated, then began clanking together in an out-of-tune chorus.
Andrew looked around. “What’s happening?”
Only one thing could cause this.
“I think your lass just told him.”
The shards, bars, and hunks of metal levitated from the workstations, pointing toward them, hovering like a swarm of metallic wasps.
McHenry grabbed his nephew and shoved him toward the door, shielding him from the metal rocketing toward them.
“Run!”
AE Jones 